Ultimate Garage Archive

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Battery powered impact guns, ratchets, die grinders, and drills are getting more and more popular as the battery life is getting longer and more powerful tools are coming on the market everyday.

Ingersoll Rand makes a series of wireless battery powered tools called the IQv Series which are quite impressive looking. The torque on the 1/2 inch drive impact gun is 360ft-lbs which is really good for a battery powered tool and weigh’s at only 6.2lbs. I like that fact that battery powered tools are so handy when working on a car as you don’t have to worry about the air line getting in the way of things.

Here is a link to Ingersoll Rand battery powered tools section so you can check them out yourself. Click Here for more info.

Below is a picture of my first hand drawn garage plans that I did up months ago and forgot all about them. Well I recently found them, scanned them and decided to post them up on this blog to share them with people.

There were a few things that I missed when drawing these plans which I will add in my next plans.

- Bathroom
- Sink
- Central Vacuum System
- Windows
- Tool Racks
- and more…

I picked up some much needed tools yesterday which will be very important for the next step in my D16 engine rebuild. I got them up at Princess Auto and they were actually quite affordable.

The piston ring compressor is a very important tool when your ready to insert the pistons into the cylinders. It keeps the rings compressed and aligned for easy insertion of the piston into the cylinder.

These C-Clip pliers are very important as I will need them to insert the c-clip into the piston once I get the wrist pin aligned in the piston head. As you can see they have really fine point tips which are only used for C-Clips and not for general purpose use.

My good friend Tracey gave me an early XMAS present tonight which really made me happy. She got me a 3.5 gallon parts washer from KMS Tools.

I was at KMS Tools a few days ago looking at some other tools and mentioned to her that I will probably need a parts washer in the near future, but never thought that she would buy one for me. I have lots of bolts, nuts, brackets, and other pieces that still need cleaning for the turbo build so this will be the perfect cleaning solution, and being so small it’s perfect for my type of usage. Thanks Tracey for getting me this great gift which I know I will use and I’m sure you will too while helping me wash some of the parts too.

3.5 Gallon Parts Washer

I went to Canadian Tire this morning and found a great deal on a set of pliers for $14.99. They have large orange handles that make them very comfortable to hold and easy to find. My theory is you can never have enough tools as they sometimes get lost, broken or not returned but a fellow mechanic friend. If your looking for a good set then these are the ones to get. I give them 6 out of 6 for good quality, cheap price and easy to use. Canadian Tire Part #58-4789-4

Today I took some time and organized my tools for easier access next time I need them. There is nothing worse then doing some work on your car and you spend more time looking for your tools then it takes to do the job.

I like buying tools because I know sooner or later I will use them down the road, nothing worse than not having the proper tool for the job. I’ve been there many times where I wish I had this tool or that tool, but instead I had to engineer a way of using some other tool for the job or had to stop what I was doing and go pickup the proper tool. These days what irritates me is when your tools are messy and all over the place and you have to buy another one because you can’t find the original one.

My suggestion is keep your tools clean and organized and always wipe them off from any grease or grime so next time when you use them you are ready to go. Only keep your most used tools in your main toolbox as the other ones get in the way. I bought a set of 30 screw drivers from Canadian Tire a while back and thought it was a good deal, but I got 20 Robertson tip and only 10 others which included Flat head(Slotted), Phillips and Torx. On my Honda I usually only use Slotted and Phillips screw drivers so I keep the Robertson tipped ones in a secondary tool box.